1468 Zomba

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1468 Zomba is a stony Mars-crossing asteroid about 7 kilometers in diameter.

Discovery
- Discovered on 23 July 1938 by Cyril Jackson at the Johannesburg (Union) Observatory in South Africa.
- Independently discovered by Louis Boyer on 2 August 1938 in Algiers, but the first discoverer is credited.
- Named after Zomba, a city in Malawi. The naming citation was published in 1953.

Orbit and classification
- Orbits the Sun about every 3.25 years (1,188 days).
- Distance from the Sun ranges from about 1.6 to 2.8 astronomical units.
- Orbital eccentricity is about 0.27 and the orbit is inclined by about 10 degrees.
- It crosses Mars’ orbit, placing it in the inner part of the asteroid belt as a Mars-crossing asteroid.

Physical characteristics
- Rotation period is about 2.77 hours.
- Diameter is around 7 kilometers (NEOWISE data), with an albedo near 0.30. If a lower albedo is assumed (0.20), the diameter would be about 8.6 kilometers.
- Spectral type is listed as Q-type, with some sources noting it as S-type.

Summary
- 1468 Zomba is one of the larger mid-sized Mars-crossing asteroids, orbiting quickly and rotating rapidly, and it carries the name of a city in Malawi.